1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a temperature control apparatus, a temperature control method and a device which can be applied to a large scale computer system, parallel computers, etc., for controlling the operating temperatures of devices such as semiconductor devices with temperature characteristics at their target temperatures so as to enable the devices at their desired operation speed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, devices such as semiconductor devices used for large scale computers, parallel computers, etc., have temperature characteristics in which their operation speed changes depending on the ambient temperature. Thus, in systems having the devices such as semiconductor devices, there have been known a lot of technologies for controlling the temperatures of the devices. For instance, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 9-305268 discloses the following technique. That is, when a system operating in a proper environment detects a certain decrease in the temperature Tj of a semiconductor or a certain limited delay time thereof, the system is controlled to operate with the quantity of air supplied by a cooling fan reduced, as a result of which if there is no improvement, a heating-dedicated circuit is operated to restore Tj (chip temperature) or tpd (delay time) to a proper environmental value. In addition, when a certain rise of Tj, or a large value of tpd, or a certain increase in current supply is detected, the quantity of air supplied by the air cooling fan is controlled to increase. If there is no improvement even with these measures, a dummy operation is carried out to slow down the operation of the system. If not improved, at least one of the operation frequency and the supply voltage of the system is decreased, and thereafter the system is transferred to the normal operation at the time when Tj or tpd is restored to the proper value. According to such a technique, it is possible to bring out maximum performance under a proper environment from an information processing system, thereby permitting the system to operate with an optimal amount of power consumption.
Moreover, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-36681 discloses another technique in which the value of a maximum amount of heat is prepared for each logic card by means of an LSI temperature reporting section based on the heat amount data of each LSI detected by a heat observation means which observes the temperature of each LSI to be cooled, and a maximum amount of heat for each logic card is totaled by a required cooling amount determination circuit whereby a maximum amount of heat (maximum temperature) within the housing of a information processing device is prepared and at the same time a necessary amount of cooling A within the housing is determined. As a consequence, the cooling control circuit receives the result of this determination and gives an on/off instruction to a cooling section based on the determination result, thus properly cooling the interior of the information processing device housing in accordance with the amount of heat generated therein. This technique makes it possible to decrease the amount of noise generated by and the amount of power consumed by the large cooling fans to be used for the large-scale information processing device.
Incidentally, devices such as semiconductor devices have respective temperature characteristics and involve variations in their operation speeds. Accordingly, even if the operating temperatures of the semiconductor devices are controlled without taking account of variations in the temperature characteristics and operation speeds thereof, the devices, when incorporated in a system and driven to run, might be subjected to racing and hence errors in operation particularly for the ones included in lots having large operating speeds. In addition, the operation speed of the entire system is limited by the elements or devices of a lot with the slowest switching speed. On the other hand, within the confines of the above-mentioned prior art, there has been proposed a temperature control apparatus intended to achieve, as one of its objects, low power consumption in controlling temperature such as during cooling. However, it is silent about temperature control based on such variations in the temperature characteristics and operation speeds, and hence in such prior art, it is still impossible to solved the above-mentioned problems resulting from variations in operation speeds.
The present invention has been made in view of the problems as referred to above, and has for its object to provide a temperature control apparatus, a temperature control method and a device in which in equipment such as information processing equipment constituted by devices such as semiconductor devices having temperature characteristics, the temperature of each device is controlled to a target operating temperature determined from a target operation speed thereof so as to alleviate the problem of variations in the operation speeds of the respective devices, thereby to enhance the operation speed of the entire system and reduce failures such as racing, etc., as well as the problem of manufacturing yield for improved reliability in operation, thus contributing to power savings in temperature control.
Bearing the above object in mind, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a temperature control apparatus comprising: a target operating temperature storage section for storing a target operating temperature of a device which is determined based on a predetermined target operation speed of the device; a temperature detection section for detecting the temperature of the device; a cooling or heating section for cooling or heating the device; and a control section for controlling the cooling or heating section based on a detected temperature of the device detected by the temperature detection section and the target operating temperature stored in the target operating temperature storage section.
With this arrangement, it is possible to control the temperature of the device such as a semiconductor device so as to make its operation speed to a predetermined value in accordance with its temperature characteristic. Accordingly, the operation speeds of a plurality of devices in the apparatus such as an information processing apparatus constituted by the plurality of devices can be made equal to one another. As a result, the manufacturing yield of such apparatuses can be improved and at the same time reliability in operation of the apparatus can be enhanced. In an embodiment of the present invention, control is effected in such a manner that the detected temperature becomes the target operating temperature.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a temperature control apparatus comprising: a target operating temperature storage section for storing a target operating temperature of a predetermined device which is determined based on a predetermined target operation speed of at least the predetermined device among a plurality of devices; a temperature detection section for detecting the temperature of at least the predetermined device among the plurality of devices; a cooling or heating section for cooling or heating the plurality of devices; and a control section for controlling the cooling or heating section based on a detected temperature of the predetermined device detected by the temperature detection section and the target operating temperature of the predetermined device stored in the target operating temperature storage section.
In this case, it is possible to construct the plurality of devices such that the target operating temperatures thereof are made similar to one another.
In addition, it is preferable that the temperature detection section is arranged to detect the temperature of a device located in the vicinity of the center among the plurality of devices. Thus, it is possible to prevent the central device, which is easy to accumulate heat and hence the temperature of which is liable to rise high, can be prevented from arriving at a critical temperature. Incidentally, the operation speed of a semiconductor device varies remarkably with respect to a change in its temperature, so the above effect becomes remarkable if the device is constituted by such a semiconductor device. An LSI such as CMOS or an integrated circuit can be used as the semiconductor device.
With the above arrangement, the temperatures of the plurality of devices can be controlled by using the target operating temperature of a typical or representative one of the devices which is located for instance at the center of the plurality of devices. Thus, the number of the target operating temperature storage sections, the number of the temperature detection sections and the like can be reduced, thereby making it possible to simplify the entire construction.
Further, in the temperature control apparatus according to the present invention, the storage section may comprise a memory incorporated in the device. With such a configuration, the memory can be easily incorporated into the device such as a semiconductor device, and in addition, the target operating temperature of the device can be stored into that device, thus making it extremely easy to perform data management thereof. Preferably, in the temperature control apparatus of the present invention, the cooling or heating section may comprise a Peltier element or a heat pipe with which a heating or cooling unit is connected. By the use of the Peltier element and the heat pipe, it is possible to easily construct the cooling or heating section.
Moreover, in this case, when there are a plurality of devices which are cooled or heated by the heat pipe, those of the devices which are high in their cooling or heating level are arranged nearer to the cooling or heating unit than those devices which are low in their low cooling or heating level are. Such an arrangement serves to cool or heat the devices by means of a cooling or heating medium (for example, a cooling liquid) in an efficient manner.
According a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a device with its operation speed determined by a temperature thereof, in which the temperature of the device is controlled to a target operating temperature corresponding to a predetermined target operation speed by a temperature control apparatus in order to make the device operate at the predetermined target operation speed, the device comprising a storage section for storing the target operating temperature as data which is given to the temperature control apparatus.
According to this device, it is easy to control the temperature of the device to the target operating temperature thereof, and it also becomes easy to manage the target operating temperature. Preferably, the device further comprises a temperature detection section for giving an actual temperature of the device to the temperature control apparatus, whereby it is not necessary to provide a temperature detection means separately from the device, thus making it easy to construct the temperature control apparatus.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus having a device whose temperature is to be controlled, the apparatus comprising: a target operating temperature storage section for storing a target operating temperature of the device which is determined based on a predetermined target operation speed of the device; a temperature detection section for detecting the temperature of the device; a cooling or heating section for cooling or heating the device; and a control section for controlling the cooling or heating section based on a detected temperature of the device detected by the temperature detection section and the target operating temperature stored in the target operating temperature storage section.
With this arrangement, the temperature of the device such as a semiconductor device can be controlled in accordance with its temperature characteristic so that the operation speed of the device is made to a predetermined operation speed. As a result, the operation speeds of a plurality of devices in the apparatus such as an information processing apparatus constituted by the plurality of devices can be made equal to one another, and hence the reliability in operation of the apparatus can be improved.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus having a plurality of devices whose temperatures are to be controlled, the apparatus comprising: a target operating temperature storage section for storing a target operating temperature of a predetermined device which is determined based on a predetermined target operation speed of at least the predetermined device among the plurality of devices; a temperature detection section for detecting the temperature of at least the predetermined device among the plurality of devices; a cooling or heating section for cooling or heating the plurality of devices; and a control section for controlling the cooling or heating section based on a detected temperature of the predetermined device detected by the temperature detection section and the target operating temperature of the predetermined device stored in the target operating temperature storage section.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a temperature control method comprising: a first step of storing in advance a target operating temperature for operating a device at a predetermined target operation speed based on a relation between an operation speed and a temperature of the device; a second step of detecting the temperature of the device; and a third step of cooling or heating the device based on a detected temperature of the device detected in the second step and the target operating temperature stored in the first step.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.